Roughing It
by HaiJu
Summary: Lost deep in the woods with an undead pack on their heels, Maddie and Phantom find themselves entangled in an awkward alliance. Can they cooperate long enough to get out of this mess?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - Prologue**

Danny rolled down the window, peering up at the forest that flanked them on both sides. Trees just tinged with a cherry-red autumn blush climbed the hills on either side of the winding road, broken here and there by rocky outcroppings."Geez Mom, how far are we from civilization? I haven't seen a gas station since breakfast."

Maddie smiled and steered the GAV expertly around another pothole. "If you want to do real stargazing, Danny, you've got to do it in the wild. I did the calculations, and the middle of the state park has the least contamination in the Northeast. Sure, it's a little remote, but this will be the absolute best location to watch the comet."

They rattled over a creaking bridge. The rocky ravine below exposed a slash of vivid autumn sky; through the open windows they could just hear the rush of rapids. Danny sprang up and leaned out to get a better look; he whistled.

"That's a long way down." He glanced at her. "Are you sure we won't run out of gas? It would suck to be stranded out here."

She laughed; you'd think after being stranded in Colorado once, he wouldn't be worried about a little wilderness. It wasn't that easy to teach an urban kid how to rough it. "We're driving a twenty-ton armored vehicle with a month's worth of food and onboard satellite communications. What could go wrong?"

Her son groaned and threw himself back on the seat. "Mom, seriously? You're gonna jinx us."

"Oh honey, don't be silly. That's all superstition."

"Says the professional ghost hunter to the ghost," Danny muttered.

Maddie blinked. "What was that?"

"Nothing! Just some saying… Dad made it up, I think." She shot him a puzzled glance, but he was busy rooting through the cooler between the seats. He emerged with a soda and a triumphant grin. "What do you think he and Jazz will do without us?"

"Oh, I'm sure your father will come up with something." Maddie grinned wryly; she was counting on Jazz to balance out Jack's more disastrous impulses.

"Father-daughter ghost hunting, I bet." Danny chuckled. "Jazz could use the practice, that's for sure. I hope somebody's around with a video camera."

Maddie pressed her lips together, shifting her hands on the steering wheel. It bothered her sometimes, that ghost hunting took up such a large chunk of their life. It was their undisguised passion. She had no regrets in their choice of career or way of life. Still… sometimes Maddie wondered if their little family didn't suffer from the singular theme that ruled their lives.

"I wanted it to be just us two, Danny," she said at last. "I know your father and I can be somewhat…distracted."

While she liked to believe that her children knew they were always loved, ghost hunting and invention both could be all-consuming professions. It seemed that every time she stopped a moment to look at her children, they'd gotten that much older. In just a couple of years, Jazz would be a legal adult. Danny wasn't far behind.

She offered him a smile. "Hanging out with your mom for a whole weekend might not be the coolest thing, but I wanted my son to myself for a change."

Danny scoffed. "Come on Mom, you know I'm excited about this. This'll be our last chance to see the comet for thirty years. Isn't that amazing? In thirty years I'll be..." He grinned and offered her the coke. "Old. That's what I'll be."

"And what would that make me?" Maddie demanded. She snatched the fizzy drink and took a long sip. It was ice cold, crisp and refreshing.

"Uh—still the world's coolest and most badass mom?" Danny gave her his most winning smile.

She snorted, handing the soda back. "Nice save."

"And anyway, you're right, it's good to get away." He leaned back in his seat, throwing his feet up on the dash. "No school, no responsibilities, no gho—uh, I mean homework."

The reference didn't slip past Maddie, and that added a little prickle of guilt to her determination. "No ghost hunting this trip Danny, I promise. Just you, me, and that comet."

* * *

The souped-up RV rattled on across a bridge and out of sight, its passengers unaware of the ghost that lurked high above the trees. Ruby eyes followed the vehicle's path with a dark hunger; fanged teeth curved in a grin, tongue running across blue lips in anticipation.

Everything had turned out perfectly.

* * *

_tbc..._

* * *

A/N: Off we go! Welcome to my new little adventure with Maddie and Danny, which will borrow shamelessly from Maternal Instincts. The prologue is short, but things'll really get moving in the next chapter.

Many thanks to **MarshmallowGoop **for beta reading! Cover art (minus text and background by moi) is by the amazingly talented thedustyleaves. Check out her blog and artwork on Tumblr!

-Hj


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

They had been there barely half an hour before Danny's ghost sense went off.

He sat back on his heels, letting the mallet he'd been using on the tent stakes hang from his hand, and glanced around. It wasn't so much a campsite as a space with less trees. They were a dozen yards from the very end of the dirt road, on a mossy patch that grew over a rocky area and next to a cluster of pines. The GAV perched bright and out of place on a slab of granite like some ungainly alien beast.

The afternoon sun warmed Danny's shoulders despite the chill he felt trickling through him. Birds chirped. A beetle scuttled through the orange pine needles at his feet. Trees creaked and rustled in the wind. Nothing weird; nothing glowing or moving where it shouldn't or suddenly sprouting teeth. No sign of the ghost.

What kind of ghost would even be in these woods? There wasn't so much as a way station for miles. The only people that died out here would be stray hikers, maybe hunters or trappers from way back when, or even further back than that, Native Americans.

An image flashed into his mind's eye, straight out of the movies- a shirtless warrior with long, draggled black hair, ghostly green tomahawk gripped in his bony fingers, war paint bright with an undead glow as he stalked silently on moccasined feet...

The ghostly chill pricked across his skin again and Danny shivered. Maybe not. Maybe it was nothing.

"Danny, do you need a sweater?" Maddie appeared from around the GAV, the cooler and a couple of camp chairs stacked in her arms.

"I'm fine, Mom." Danny gave the final tent peg one last whack, then stood up and dusted off his knees. "Done with the tent!"

It wasn't his problem, anyway; this weekend he was determined to be nobody but plain old ordinary Danny Fenton. Mom, backed by all the ghost equipment in the GAV, was more than enough to handle whatever random spook might crop up. He just had to stick close, and he'd be fine.

Mom had set down the chairs and was rummaging through the cooler. "Nice job, honey! Now why don't you get us some firewood? You should explore while the sun's still up."

Danny sighed. _Jinxed._

He strolled into the tree line, picking up stray branches here and there, until the GAV was well and truly out of sight. Then Danny glanced around; he dropped the branches.

A cool, tingling well of energy nestled deep in his chest, close to his heart. Danny reached for it with his mind, nudging it into life like you'd blow on the ember of a fire. It expanded and grew until it enveloped him in a wash of icy light. Ordinary human vanished, fading to a little warm spot where his heart should have been, and left in its place a not-so-ordinary ghost.

Danny blinked at the forest that had become subtly greener through glowing, ectoplasmic eyes. It looked so different from home; there was so much _life _in everything, The trees and earth nearly crackled with untouched energy.

"Cool," he said. Then he shivered and blue-white vapor escaped his lips. "Right. Back to work."

His ghost sense was stronger in this form, more precise-like an icy breeze from a distinct direction rather than a general feeling of cold. He turned into the feeling and glided deeper into the woods.

The trees thinned, and he found himself on the edge of a ravine. The forest gathered thickly on his right, and to the left a grassy bank ended sharply with a steep, rocky dropoff. Danny glanced at the whitewater rushing by fifty feet below, wondering if it was the same river they'd crossed on a bridge just an hour before.

Something snarled just off to his right. Danny jumped. He turned and just caught a glimpse of something darting into the underbrush. He went after it and, after a second's thought, touched the shrub it had gone under and, with a little effort, turned it invisible.

It crouched there, red eyes bright with inhuman malice. It wasn't quite a mountain lion, but couldn't be called a boar, either. Huge clawed paws punctured the earth; bristly black-green fur made a patchwork over its bony ribs like grass struggling for survival on a ridgy cliff. The face ended in a snout and tusks, but with way too many teeth. Rounded cat ears flicked forward and hair prickled down its bony spine. Its dusky green aura swirled. It snarled again, a deep, guttural growl with an unearthly echo to it.

"Woah," Danny muttered, pulling back. "Wildlife without the life part."

Another pair of eyes, then a third flashed in the underbrush, glittering like enchanted jewels. Clouded, wispy auras flickered around the beasts, imperfect and tainted.

He could only spot snatches of the other two- here a yellow fang, there a flash of ragged, dark green fur, but it was enough. Several large, undead predators surrounded him. They circled, growling menacingly, but none of them attacked. As if they were waiting for something… or someone.

This was starting to look familiar. Danny crossed his arms, hovering above the grass, and scowled. Way too familiar.

"Huh." He raised his voice. "Who do I know who likes to do gross experiments on animals, has no life, and stalks people?"

"At last," a voice behind him drawled, dripping with refinement and sarcasm. "You've put two and two together. That makes four, by the way. Or have you improved in math since our last little encounter?"

Danny turned to find Vlad standing midair above the gorge, red-lined cloak fluttering like some gaudy moth. "At least I've learned something, Vlad. Are you seriously trying for my mom again? With the same undead monsters in the woods thing? What, did your evil-plot-of-the month membership run out?"

"Ah, but this time, my boy, it will be different."

"What makes you think that?"

Wordlessly, but with a smug little smile, Vlad produced a compact silver device from under his cloak.

"The Plasmius Maximus?" Danny eyed the weapon. He remembered vividly his last encounter with that thing; no way was he going to let Vlad zap him. "What, de-powering me again? How is that different? Mom's got a whole RV full of ghost weaponry to protect us, Vlad. You and your creepy fur collection don't have a chance. "

"Did it never occur to your admittedly limited teenage brain that the term Maximus was a more apt name for something that _increased_ ghostly power?" Vlad flicked something on the side, and the device powered up with an ominous crackle of electricity. "The purpose of this device, its true purpose, is to lock a hybrid into ghost form, no matter what damage it takes. It was only by happy accident that I discovered one could reverse the effects."

Danny frowned. "And that's going to help you how?"

Vlad's smirk widened, baring not-quite-human fangs. "It will, shall we say, remove the competition."

Danny drifted back, the hairs prickling on his neck. Vlad wasn't making sense, but one thing was for sure: He was up to something. The beasts had stopped circling and now crouched behind Vlad, barely visible in the bushes, their red eyes fixed on Danny.

"You see Daniel," Vlad continued, examining his nails with a half-lidded gaze, "unlike you, I always learn from my mistakes. I studied the incident in Colorado, and do you know what conclusion I came to?"

"Let me guess: You prefer persians over siamese?"

"I had calculated to create the perfect scenario for Maddie's personality. Adventure, excitement, a lush setting, romance…"

Danny held up a hand. "Um, first, ew. Second, if you thought that was romantic, boy have you got my mom wrong."

Vlad ignored him. "There was only one factor I failed to properly compute: Her relationship to you. You were the flaw in my plan, Daniel. You, and her maternal fixation on protecting you at all costs. I intend to rectify that."

Vlad had that crazed glint in his eye, the one that said he was all in on this idea, no matter how stupid. Danny swallowed hard. "If I go missing, Mom will be crazy worried. She won't give you the time of day."

Vlad produced a second device, one that looked exactly like a two-way radio.

Something that sounded like Danny's voice crackled out of the speaker. "Hey Mom, I…I got lost." Fake him sounded just the right shade of embarrassed. "The rangers picked me up, so don't worry! I'm just fine." Pause. "Don't worry about me, you have fun with Mr. Masters."

Danny stared at Vlad slack-jawed. "If you think that's gonna work, you're even loopier than usual."

"Oh, I beg to differ. Who do you think Maddie will believe? The old college friend who recently saved her son's life, or public enemy number one?" His eyes narrowed to red slits. "And that, my dear boy, is exactly who you'll be."

Cold metal jabbed between his shoulderblades without warning. Danny barely had time to flinch-arcs of lightning lashed like fire over his body, stabbing through every nerve with blue-white fire.

Vlad, still standing in front of him, smiled. _How?_

Danny hit the dirt hard. He groaned and rolled over, blinking up at twin smirks. At first he thought he was seeing double, but then one Plasmius dissolved away in a glimmer of ectoplasm. A copy. He'd been tricked. _Nice going, Fenton._

"You dirty-" Danny growled out, struggling to his feet. Every nerve still tingled from the eletrical shock, fingers twitching as he tried to clench them into fists. He lunged at the half ghost.

Vlad sighed and sidestepped, then backhanded Danny sharply in the side of the head.

Danny saw stars. He reeled, only keeping his balance by the fact that he was standing on air. There was a rustle of cape, and then a thick, strong hand wrapped around the back of his neck.

"Another perk of knowing you can't revert to weaker form." Vlad chuckled darkly. "No need to hold back."

* * *

Maddie hummed tunelessly to herself as she stepped into the RV in search of the cooking gear. She'd have to see if there was access to that river they'd crossed earlier; they had plenty of drinking water, but if they wanted to bathe or get the dishes washed, they'd want to have more.

With any luck, that ravine they'd crossed opened out lower down, or maybe it had a smaller tributary. That might make for a fun hike tomorrow... if she could convince Danny.

One of the downsides of raising children in the city was that they didn't have the same experience she and Jack had grown up with, living close to nature. There were things only the wild could teach you about survival, being independent, learning to adapt. Maddie smiled wryly. Her son was many things, but an outdoorsman wasn't one of them. He was taking forever with that firewood.

Something on the console started beeping. Maddie glanced at it, curiosity tugging at her despite herself. The ghost detector? In the middle of the wilderness?

To her surprise, there were a handful of little blips, including two strong ectosignatures that stood out like hot, bright little stars on the dark green display. What were ghosts-especially powerful ones-doing all the way out here?

She stuck her head out the door and glanced around the campsite. Danny still wasn't back. Maddie bit her lip; she'd said no ghost hunting on this trip. But she couldn't leave such a mystery uninvestigated... and it wouldn't hurt to just go look. Right?

Before she could change her mind, she opened up the glove compartment and grabbed the ectogun stashed there. A Fenton Thermos had been crammed in beside it-probably by Jack; he was never convinced the GAV had enough weaponry. She shrugged and clipped it to her belt. If she could snag one of the ghosts, she'd have plenty of time to study it… well, after the camping trip..

Almost as an afterthought, she opened up one of the cabinets and grabbed the Specter Deflector Jack had stashed there, buckling it on and locking it with a click. Madie set the key on the dash on her way out; she'd only be a minute, anyway. Danny wouldn't even notice she had gone.

Maddie crept through the thinning underbrush at the edge of the tree line. There was a dropoff to her right, and the sound of rushing water in the ravine belon. By degrees, she could hear something up ahead, even over the noise of the river. Two things, actually: the familiar whining hiss of ectoblasts firing, and something else, a strange sound, like meat slapping against stone, heavy and wet. It took her a moment to place it-a groan pulled the picture into place. Someone was fighting. Or rather, being beaten.

Maddie pulled the safety off her ectogun and crept through the bushes, unclipping the thermos from her belt and holding it at the ready in her other hand. Something metallic caught her eye in the green grass, right at her feet.

It looked like a high-tech taser, with two wickedly pointed prongs and a large activation button above a few much smaller controls. Had one of the ghosts brought it? Or was it what they were fighting over? She shrugged and slipped it into one of her larger belt compartments. That was a mystery to mull over later.

She pushed aside a tall fern, revealing an otherwordly scene, lit by glaring flashes of green and magenta, a bizarre contrast to the lush natural setting. Two ghosts, arms locked together as they struggled against each other, one in white, the other black.

Maddie stared, stunned. Why were the Wisconsin Ghost and the Ghost Boy, of all things, fighting out here in the middle of nowhere?

Surprise gave way to a thrill of excitement; these were both powerful, unique ecto-entities. If she could only capture them, it would advance her research by leaps and bounds. Maddie crouched, looking for an opening.

She raised the thermos, then hesitated; they were both powerful ghosts in their own right. Maddie wasn't positive that it could create enough electromagnetic pull to capture both of them simultaneously. As long as they were grappling together, there was no way to isolate the effect of the beam. She waited, finger tracing the outline of the activation button.

Phantom was losing. Their brief grapple ended with the bigger ghost holding Phantom's wrist's in a one-handed grip, dragging him close to deliver a vicious strike to his gut. Phantom doubled over and groaned. He tried to turn the movement into a kick, but the Wisconsin Ghost flung him into the nearest tree. Maddie winced at the heavy crunch of the ghost hitting the trunk. Ghosts might be powerful and inhuman, but that sounded like it hurt.

The Wisconsin Ghost flung his head back and laughed. "Ha! This feels marvelous. I should have thought of this years ago, my dear boy. All that misplaced frustration I could have been channeling toward such an easy target." He dove gracefully toward the ghost boy, who was hovering, dazed, near the roots of the tree, giving him no chance to dodge the oncoming strike.

"Shut up-cheese for brains." The insult was gritted out between blows. The ghost boy managed to land a punch, only to have his hand twisted into an armlock that had even a blackbelt like Maddie mildly impressed. Phantom twisted his head around and glared. "Only a loser creep would have this much fun beating up a kid."

"You'll find yourself less mouthy once I'm through with you," the WIsconsin Ghost hissed. He flung his captive onto the ground, cuffing the back of the ghost boy's neck as he fell. "You'll eat dirt, and your own words, boy, if it's the last thing I squeeze out of your throat."

"You want to play dirty?" Phantom rolled onto his back and kicked hard at the other ghost's crotch. The Wisconsin Ghost blocked it with his shin, hand whipping out and closing around Phantom's ankle.

"Nice try my boy, but _never _quite good enough."

Maddie winced as Phantom flew across the clearing and struck a second tree, splintering branches as he fell to the ground. The Wisconsin Ghost stalked after him, cracking his knuckles. The fight, if it had ever been one, was brutally one-sided. If there had been any purpose to this, it was long lost in the undead creature's wrath.

Neither of them were looking her way. Phantom was on his hands and knees, his opponent wholly focused on crushing him.

Maddie saw her chance and seized it. She jumped up from her crouch and aimed the thermos's mouth squarely between the Wisconsin Ghost's cloaked shoulderblades. She pressed the button, and concentric rings shot out of the device. It had caught the ecto-entity in its irresistible electro-magnetic pull.

The Wisconsin Ghost uttered an undignified squawk, half turning. "Impossible! Who-"

She caught a glance of ruby-red eyes, wide with astonishment, and then the ghost's body twisted and shrank, vanishing inside her thermos.

Maddie found herself face to face with the green-eyed ghost boy, who was still sprawled out on the grass, ectoplasm running down his chin from a split lip.

They stared at each other in silence.

Phantom pushed himself to his feet, spitting out a mouthful of green liquid and wiping an arm across his lip. One eye was puffy with darker shades of green, and his jumpsuit had a number of rips and tears in it. "Uh, thanks."

Maddie raised the thermos and pointed it at him. "You're welcome."

* * *

_tbc..._

* * *

**A/N:**

Now things start moving in earnest! I'm not sure this is as good as it could be, but it's at least been edited to the point of diminishing returns. I need to get moving on this fic, not to mention that other little ongoing project I have...

Many thanks to **MarshmallowGoop** for betaing this chapter!

And thank _you_, my dearest reviewers! This fic is gonna be fun, and it's awesome to know you're onboard with it. :)

-Hj


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The ghost's eyes widened and he waved his hands frantically. "No, wait, I'm not—" He broke off and tensed, focusing on something behind her. "Look out!"

Maddie scoffed, thumb already on the thermos button. "You think I'd fall for..." She felt a chill on her back and flung herself sideways on instinct; whatever it was glanced off her shoulder and sent the thermos flying from her hands. The beam went wild, shooting harmlessly through the trees. It bounced over the edge of the gorge and vanished.

So much for capturing any ecto-entities to study later. She'd have to deal with this threat the old-fashioned way. Maddie rolled neatly to her feet, already drawing an ecto-gun.

She found the ghost boy grappling with a massive, furry creature that might once have been a wolf, though it had too many eyes and long, curling horns protruding from its blocky skull. A heavy, clouded aura hung around it like radioactive green smoke. Phantom held it off with his feet, one hand fending off the snapping jaws, hammering the other gloved fist into its neck as the thing swiped at him with wicked, raking claws.

Maddie fired off a shot that landed somewhere in the mangy, dark green hide. The thing yelped and leapt back. Its cluster of black eyes landed on Maddie, and its head lowered with a snarl. A spark of scarlet fire curled around its hanging tongue and flickered dangerously. It regarded her for a moment, then threw its head back and howled.

Maddie took the moment and fired, hitting it square in the throat. The howl cut off into a wet gurgle, bright ectoplasm gushing out of the gaping hole in its fur. It rushed her, broken neck flopping drunkenly. She dropped her stance and raised an arm protectively. Just before it pounced, a blast from the side threw it into a tree.

"Down doggy!" Phantom fired off a second ectoblast. The beast yelped. A messy greenish stain smeared the rough bark as it slid to the forest floor. It twitched once, then lay still, the ectoplasmic body already softening into formless goop.

Phantom turned to her with a grin, dusting off his hands. "And they say you can't teach dead dogs new tricks."

"I hope you're done being flippant," Maddie retorted. She swung her ectogun up to train it between the ghost boy's eyes. "Because now you'll have to deal with me."

They both stiffened as a not-too-distant howl sounded in the woods. It was joined by several more.

"Great," Phantom muttered. "I forgot about the whole 'evil pack' thing. Just fantastic. You'd better get back to the RV."

Maddie's attention swung back to Phantom, suddenly suspicious. The gun she'd moved to point at the woods returned to target him. "How did you know about my RV? Did you follow me out here, Phantom?"

""Relax!" The ghost threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I didn't follow you or anything, it's just… Uh,," The ghost scratched the back of his head, then gestured broadly. "Well have you looked at that thing? It's— it's impossible to miss! And what else would you be driving out here in the middle of nowhere?"

She eyed him, not lowering the gun. "I don't like how familiar you are with my whereabouts. What are you planning?"

He rolled his eyes. "What I'm planning is that neither of us get mauled and/or eaten by mutant ghosts with bad breath and way too many teeth. That okay with you?"

It was anything but okay. She'd promised no ghost hunting, and now this? This little side exploration was rapidly wheeling out of control—she should never have left him, should have done a sweep of the area before she let him out of her sight—but why so many ghosts? Why here, why now?

Maddie stopped short, eyes widening. Danny. He hadn't come back. What if these things had attacked him first? The idea made her blood run cold. "My son's out here somewhere, I need to—"

"I'm sure he's already back there waiting for you," the ghost interrupted. "Let's go, before—dangit."

It was like the trees themselves had split open and were pouring ghosts down on them. A wall of green flowed out of the underbrush, dozens of writhing, snapping, slathering creatures of every description. Their bodies twisted and warped into grotesque shapes, animal—post-animal—but not quite.

Maddie backed away—then stopped short as her heels hit the crumbling edge of the gorge. It was worst possible place to take a stand, she knew, but it was too late to choose now.

She drew a second ecto-gun and leveled it at the ghosts, setting her jaw. She'd thin them out as much as she could, for Danny as much as herself. Phantom was already hammering the other ghosts with ecto-blasts, but that only seemed to enrage them.

A giant cat with bristling, hedgehog-like spines broke out of the pack. Double rows of razor teeth gnashed, the tail lashing around like a spiked mace. Red eyes glittered. Coiled ecto-fueled muscles bunched. It sprang at Maddie.

She took aim coolly and blasted a hole right through its chest. It writhed and disintegrated into a splash of ectoplasm that splattered over her chest and arms, speckling her goggles—in that instant, a second bear-like beast that had hidden behind it collided with her, jaws snapping at her throat.

They teetered on the brink—her ectogun trapped between her own chest and cold, dense fur, one hand shoved up against the thing's lower jaw—she could feel the percussive power in each empty bite—the other arm elbowing against heavy paws to get room for a shot—.

An ectoblast from the side—Phantom, again? What was he playing at?—knocked it off of her, flinging it away in another liquid splash. Wherever these ghosts had come from, they were incredibly unstable.. Maddie stepped back to steady herself—the foot landed on empty air.

Stupid— The gorge—with a cry Maddie toppled backwards, down into the rocky ravine and its icy, rushing waters.

Maddie plunged into the water feet-first. Her head broke the surface and she gasped, heart racing from the sudden jolt of cold. For a moment it was all rushing, foaming white water—she caught a glimpse of a tangle of jagged rocks up ahead—then a strong pair of arms hooked around her shoulders and hauled her bodily out of the rapids.

She looked up and saw a black bodysuit, white gloves. That and the coldness that radiated off of him told her all she needed to know: It was Phantom.

"Release me, ghost!" She twisted, trying to get her hands down to her utility belt and the weapons stashed there—the ecto-gun had been ripped from her hands by the current—but it was useless with his grip on her arms. "I said let go!"

He didn't seem to hear. Phantom's face was locked tight in a grimace, and arcs of white energy raced up his arms and into his body. Maddie abruptly remembered she was wearing the Specter Deflector. It should be powerful enough to repel even high-level ghosts on contact, so how?

It was working, obviously, but Phantom hung on through sheer stubbornness, flying even higher over the rapids. Had he been disappointed that she'd survived the fall and wanted to take her up to a terminal height?

At this thought Maddie swung and twisted her feet—almost but not quite managing to kick him in the face. If he dropped her now, she might survive. Despite her struggles and the shocks from the belt, Phantom hung on. He flew her up foot by foot, a jerky, drunken path. They were nearly to the height of the gorge now. Any higher and she would be—

Phantom finally lost his grip.

Maddie tumbled down, landing by some stroke of luck on a grassy ledge overlooking the deadly rapids. Phantom dropped onto his hands and knees, breathless and sparking from the leftover energy. Maddie rolled neatly into a ready stance, slipping a new ectogun out of her belt in one smooth motion.

The ghost glanced up at the whine of the ectogun and jumped to his feet. "Woah, hey! Is that the thanks I get for saving your life?"

Maddie couldn't believe her ears. "Saving my—you just tried to kill me!"

"Kill you? How do you work that out?"

"By dropping me—"

"On what? Soft grass? Oh, the horror! I stranded you on this soft, safe, grassy patch!" Phantom stomped hard, emphasizing his point. "Did you want me to leave you in the white rushing waters of rocky death? How is flying you to safet—" An ominous cracking sound cut off Phantom's words. Their eyes met, his wide and scared, hers doubtless mirroring them. Then the entire ledge cracked and began to fall into the gorge.

Maddie made a mad dash for safety, but the piece of land had already broken away from the cliff. The gap was too far to jump. She'd failed—again—gravity was dragging her downward.

Phantom flew straight for her, a look of determination on his face. She whirled, ecto-gun in hand, but he didn't so much as slow down. She fired—missed as the ground shook—and then he was there. His expression was taut and she caught the end of his sentence as he collided with her, wrapping her in a bear hug that pinned her arms to her sides.

"—is gonna frickin' hurt!"

For a minute, they just hung in midair as the earth fell away under their feet. Phantom grunted and stiffened as the Specter Deflector activated with a vengeance, but didn't so much as loosen his grip. Maddie was hyper-aware of the faint roar of water over the rocks far, far below. They were much higher than her initial fall now; all Phantom had to do was let go.

Instead, slowly, jerkily, Phantom moved, drifting unsteadily toward the newly formed cliff face. They made it just past the edge, then a little further onto a solid piece of rock—still floating, though their feet were dragging on the ground by the end. Finally Phantom's arms loosened, and Maddie squirmed free, jumping back and training her ectogun on him.

There was no need; just moments after he released her, he tumbled onto the ground in an ungraceful tangle of arms and legs. The sharp ozone scent of burned ectoplasm hung in the air, and wisps of green-white smoke drifted up from the ghost's prone form.

Maddie wavered. Her defensive instincts were dying down, replaced by confusion—and curiosity. He could have saved himself from a considerable amount of damage by simply letting her fall. Why did he bring her up here instead?

For that matter, what was he doing away from Amity Park? To see him out here in the woods with his clean-cut, futuristic jumpsuit was surreal and almost comical. He lay perfectly still—almost. There was a steady dip and rise of his shoulders, as if he were breathing softly. Apart from the ghostly glow, he could have passed for a boy, lying there asleep. She noticed there were leaves stuck in the ghost's hair. It was that last, disarming detail that made her think that maybe he hadn't been plotting against her after all.

Still. He was a ghost. And more dangerously, he knew where their vehicle was. Maddie trained her ecto-gun on the unmoving lump of ghost. It would be so easy to finish him off right now...

Something howled in the distance; Maddie sighed and holstered the ecto-gun.

Those strange, feral ghosts were still out there. Danny was somewhere near the campsite, alone, and he'd have no idea what had happened to her. She needed to get back to him, and soon. Phantom had stranded her on the opposite side of the canyon. It would take hours, if not days, to get back to the campsite and her son. He had the GAV with all of its anti-ghost defenses...but Danny was still barely more than a boy. He needed her.

"Consider us even," she told Phantom's unmoving form. Then she turned and began the long trek upstream.

* * *

"Get lost."

The ghost looked around at the featureless woods, then grinned down at her cheekily. "Done. Now what?"

Maddie scowled, fingers itching for her blaster. Phantom had tracked her down barely an hour after she had left him, and now hovered tantalizingly out of reach above her head. He wasn't attacking her...yet. She would be wise to do the same; it was better to save her limited firepower.

She walked a little faster. Brambles snagged at her boots and legs. The hazmat fabric was tough enough to stop the thorns, but it slowed her down considerably. It was like wading through a rough, leafy surf.

Phantom lounged in the air a few feet above her, head resting on crossed arms, phasing in and out of tangibility to avoid low-hanging branches. The sight of him drifting so effortlessly through the dense foliage was almost sickening.

"Stop following me," she said again, without much hope.

"Nuh-uh," he threw back. He tossed her a neon green glance. "Those ghosts are still out there, and I'm pretty sure they're targeting you. I'm not leaving you by yourself."

Maddie ducked under a branch and pulled a clinging bramble from her arm. "The concern is not appreciated, or necessary."

"If that stupid little accessory wouldn't zap me, I could just fly you over to the campsite." He rolled onto his stomach and shot a glare at her Specter Deflector.

"I prefer to walk." It was actually a very beautiful trek, despite the frustrating underbrush. The gorge opened up on her right, revealing craggy grey stone, colored here and there by bushes that had taken root in the cracks. The sky above was a perfect shade of blue, cloudless and sunny. The edge of the gorge might have brambles, but it was relatively easy going compared to the dense underbrush that started just inside the treeline. It was nature at its best… if only Danny was here with her, safe and sound, Maddie would have no worries at all.

Phantom watched her pick her way gingerly around another thorny patch. "Oh sure, looks like loads of fun."

"No one invited you, Phantom."

He ignored her. "Up to that bridge and back will be like, fifteen miles, you know. There's probably bears, and poison ivy, and even more thorny stuff. Not to mention the bugs." He swatted at the small, buzzing cloud that had collected around him. It wasn't likely the average mosquito would bite an ecto-entity, but they seemed oddly attracted to his aura. "Where do they keep coming from?"

She glanced at him, amused despite herself. "You're a very urban ghost, aren't you?"

"If you mean I prefer civilization like most sane people, then yeah." He crossed his arms and phased through an oak tree, flinching when a startled squirrel raced up through his right shoulder and vanished into the upper branches. "This is boring as heck."

"I could just shoot you and be done with it." She reached for the blaster, sliding it half out of its holster.

He propped his head up on one hand and yawned. "And I could go invisible and you'd never know I was still following you."

Maddie stopped short, fast enough that the ghost had to backpedal to keep from overshooting her. The narrow gap between the cliffside and the forest ended abruptly here in a dense tangle of bushes.

Maddie considered the obstacle quietly, eyes ranging up and down. She gave the thick foliage an experimental jab with her ecto-machete. Instead of slicing through, the blade jammed in the thick, woody branches, forcing her to yank it out with both hands.

"Uh...yeah, that's not working."

Maddie huffed and crossed her arms, shooting the ghost an irritated glare. "Do you make it a habit to state the obvious?" She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm going to have to go around."

Phantom glanced at the woods; the trees grew thick just a few feet from where they stood, turning the bright afternoon sun into a cool green twilight. "Go around? But I thought you were following the river to find your way. What if you get lost?"

"I'll just have to take that chance."

He scoffed, pointing an open hand at the offending foliage. "This is stupid. I can fix this, just watch."

It clicked in her mind what he was planning just a minute too late. "Phantom, don't!"

The ghost ignored her and blasted away at the bush. One, two, three ectoblasts shot from his hand, turning it to ash and withering twigs.. It took him all of five seconds to blast through thirty feet of the thick brush, leaving behind a wide, comfortable path directly along the cliffside.

"There, that wasn't so hard, was—" Phantom cringed when he saw the look on her face. "What? I was helping you out!"

Maddie glowered at him. She should have shot the stupid ghost when she'd had the chance. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

He floated down until he was face to face with her, hands on his hips. He jabbed a finger at his smoking handiwork. "You needed a way through, I made you one!"

"That's not the point! Did you forget that there's a whole pack of animal-type ecto-entities out there? Your little light show is going to bring them right to us!"

"Oh come on, that took me less than ten seconds! Do you really think they'd pick up on something that..."

A howl sounded in the distance. Maddie crossed her arms and glared.

The ghost boy winced. "Uh, whoops?"

* * *

_tbc..._

* * *

A/N: And the adventure continues!

Many thanks to my beta reader, **MarshmallowGoop**!

And thank you, my dear reviewers! Y'all are all awesome and give me super warm fuzzies. It's a scientifically proven fact that writers subsist off of warm fuzziness. That and caffeine. Thanks especially to **MissFrizzle** and **Cordria** (psst go check out their fics)!


	4. Chapter 4

The eerie howls came again, closer this time. Phantom winced.

Maddie's glare could have melted steel. "Anything else you'd like to help me with? Do you want to shoot me next? Put me out of my misery?"

The ghost's hands knotted into fists and he glared back. "It was a mistake, okay? I'm sorry!"

Maddie threw up her hands and stalked off into the woods, away from the cliffside. She needed a clear view, room to move. And she would make _absolutely_ sure that she was nowhere near the ravine this time.

Phantom trailed after her. "Where are you going? Won't it be harder for us to fight in here?"

"Us? There is no _us_, ghost. The only reason you're not full of holes right now is that I need to conserve my firepower." Maddie ran her fingers over her belt as she walked, doing a mental check. Two ectoguns short, but she still had a few smaller ones tucked here and there, and there was always her laser staff. "This would've been a lot easier with the thermos," she muttered to herself.

The ghost's eyes widened. "Oh, man, Vla—Plasmius was in that thing."

A spreading oak caught her eye; it was a thick, ancient thing with knobbly branches sweeping skyward. Its shade had carved a mossy gap opening in the thick brush, maybe fifty feet across. Perfect. Maddie ran past it, doubled back, and leapt up to grab one of the branches. She hung by her arms for a moment, then expertly swung herself up and proceeded to climb. "Your point?"

"He's—uh, I guess—well, it doesn't matter. That's probably good for now, but—you _dropped _it?" The disbelief in Phantom's voice twanged at Maddie's nerves; he was lecturing _her_ on responsibility now? He dragged a gloved hand through his white hair, leaving it sticking up every which way. "How could you drop it, that's like the most important ghost fighting thing ever!"

Maddie grunted as she hoisted herself over a thick limb. "Trust me, if I'd known you'd be so much trouble, I would have zapped you first." The branch was thick enough to kneel on. Maddie slid the laser staff out of her boot and locked the handle in place with a soft _snkt_.

"Hey! Without me you would have been—" The ghost boy shivered and a cloud of white vapor escaped from his lips. He locked eyes with her.

Adrenaline sizzled through Maddie, making her hyper-aware of the rough bark under her knee, the way Phantom's aura buzzed on a frequency almost beyond human hearing, how the birds and insects were suddenly, completely silent.

"They're here," Phantom whispered.

"Then shut up and vanish, ghost."

He shot her a glare, but did just that, blinking out of existence like a light switched off. Maddie shrugged off the sudden, irrational feeling of loneliness that swept around her. She had ghosts to hunt.

Her perch swayed with the wind. Through a gap in the branches, she caught sight of the blood orange sun bellying fat and hot above the mountain ridge; darkness threatened, only an hour or so away. Danny had to have made his way back by now.

_Be safe,_ she thought, and squeezed the staff's grip.

The tree wasn't a secure hiding place, exactly—ghost creatures weren't bound by the laws of gravity, and even the heaviest of them could easily scale the thirty feet to her branch—but here she was less visible, and could assess the situation and formulate a plan of attack. The Specter Deflector would give her an edge, but if any of the ghosts could create projectiles she might be in trouble. None of them had proven that advanced so far—aside from Phantom, that is. They were feral, primitive, but there were a lot of them. If she acted wisely, she could outsmart and destroy them.

The first three came running low to the ground— flowing with liquid swiftness through the undergrowth. They stood as large as wolves, but looked more like ferrets, with long, sinuous bodies and small heads, the rounded ears pulled back. Beady red eyes glinted like jewels from within the dark green fur of their half-rotted bodies, elongated fangs curving well past narrow muzzles like wicked knives.

Maddie balanced on the branch as they ran on beneath her; she wanted a better idea of their numbers before alerting them to any kind of counterattack.

Hard on the heels of the ferret-ghosts came wolves—five, ten, fifteen in all, massive beasts with dark fur spiking along their backs and long, brushy tails that glowed with unnatural flame. They trotted after the ferrets, long noses to the ground. Maddie shuddered; on their hind legs, they'd be nearly twice her size. She could only hope her doubling back would throw off the scent.

A third round of animals passed by, these more ragtag and spread out; she caught a glimpse of the massive, lumbering shoulders of some oversized beast, curving green horns jutting out of a great, black, furry head, its leonine haunches dappled with patches of rot and flesh. She heard the scrabble of a dozen more in the underbrush.

Maybe thirty ghosts in all, a real pack. Maddie took a deep breath, careful and silent, as her heart rate spiked—so many. They had her scent; it was only a matter of time until they found her. She'd have no chance of getting back to the GAV before then. She was on her own.

At least Phantom's foolishness had drawn the pack away from the campsite. Danny would be safe for now… if he _had _made it back. If he wasn't lying somewhere in the woods, exposed, injured and alone. Maddie clenched her teeth and pulled the staff closer to herself; she couldn't think about that kind of thing, not now.

She had to eliminate the ghosts. For Danny's sake, if nothing else. It was nothing she couldn't handle if she was careful. Their guard was down; they were tracking, not fighting. She would just drop down behind the stragglers and start picking them off one by one...

"Eat ectoblast, pelt-face!"

Maddie watched open-mouthed as Phantom reappeared in front of the wolves and all her plans fell to pieces.

* * *

"This was a bad idea," Danny panted.

Luckily, Mom was too far off to say _I told you so._

He flung another ectoblast, scorching the pelt of the nearest wolf circling around him. Dark green fur flashed in the corner of his eye. He flung up an arm on reflex, phasing. Danny felt the beast's jaws snap shut inside his now-intangible neck. The tingling, half-there sensation sent goosebumps up his arms.

Shooting into the treetops, he came face to face with a ferret launching itself from a nearby branch—yellow-white fangs slashed at his chest. Danny backpedaled, but not before it had given him another gash on his arm.

Danny cried out. He darted up and in, catching the thing by the back of its head. He gritted his teeth and _twisted_ until something popped and snapped under his fingers. _Gross._ He gagged a little at the sight of the backwards head, waiting for the glow to fade from the red eyes.

A blow from behind knocked him out of the tree. As he fell, the ferret hissed and glared at him from its now awkwardly dangling neck. Its powerful tail lashed. Whatever Vlad had done to them, he'd made them ten times meaner...and about a hundred times tougher.

Danny slammed back-first into the ground. He groaned; as a ghost he didn't need to breathe and couldn't have the wind knocked out of him, but it didn't keep it from hurting.

The ferret-ghost tried to pounce, but it seemed to have lost all direction with its head askew and it smashed itself into a tree. Green sludge and clumps of fur melted off the lower branches. Danny shuddered. And Sam thought ferrets were _cute_.

One down. That left him with—Danny's eyes widened. He tried to scramble to his feet— but the wolves were already on top of him. The world became a tangle of sharp claws and twisting bodies with red, slitted eyes over lolling purple tongues. Yellowed fangs tore at his jumpsuit and the flesh beneath.

Yanking himself intangible, he sank into the forest floor. One of them had got its teeth in and came along, growling. Its fangs buried themselves in his shoulder. Danny screamed. White lights popped in his vision—he felt as much as heard the tear of muscles and skin.

He pushed at the thing blindly and dragged them up, shooting past the pack and the splattered remains of the ferret, up into the darkening sky.

Danny dropped the intangibility. The weight of the wolf returned, dragging at his shoulder until he was sure it would be torn completely off. A yell that was half-scream tore out of his throat. He gathered ectoplasm in his fist and released the blast into the wolf's soft underbelly.

The monster yelped, losing its grip. It snarled and writhed, but it was an animal type and not advanced enough to know levitation See? I knew you said that the ghosts couldn't fly... It dropped like a stone to the forest below, cracking branches as it fell, finally hitting the ground with a very satisfying thud.

Ectoplasm seeped out of the pile of fur and vanished into the ground. Grass hissed, withering under the toxic fluid.

Danny wrapped his fingers around the ragged punctures in his shoulder, wincing, then looked around. He was just beneath the tree canopy, hoving midair. The remaining wolves circled below.

Smoky green auras flickered—a pattern of light and dark that didn't quite fit the amber sunlight sending its last rays through the leaves. It was getting dark; Mom would have trouble seeing, unless she'd brought her—

A chill that had nothing to do with his ghost form ran down Danny's spine. _Mom. _He'd lost track of her in all the chaos; he needed to be protecting her, not fooling around. The Specter Deflector might keep the ghosts from mauling her, but they could wear her down. It didn't take a deathblow for someone to bleed to death. Humans were vulnerable like that.

A flash of blue-white light and an animal howl drew his attention to a nearby copse of hardwoods. That had to be her; she was still fighting, at least. He glanced below and, to his dismay, saw the other ghosts had heard it too; they'd turned away from him and slunk into the underbrush in the direction of the noise.

Danny let his legs dissolve into a ghostly tail and shot ahead. If Mom wasn't in trouble yet, she would be soon.

* * *

Maddie pressed herself into the roots of the oak, tossing aside the grenade pin. She squeezed the gash in her arm to slow the blood flow, hissing at the added pain. It felt like a hot iron had been pressed into her arm.

A boar had slashed its ugly, serrated tusk into the upper part of her arm. She'd been lucky; it had been trying to rip open her stomach. A snakelike creature had coiled arund her ankle, only to be fried by the specter deflector. The electroshock grenade had cleared out another dozen and spooked the rest into a temporary retreat.

She could see them weaving in and out of the brambles and shrubs just beyond the oak's spreading branches, their eyes restless embers that smoldered in the gathering shadows. The fading daylight made them bolder. They'd be back again, and soon.

Maddie rested her head against the rough bark and tried to steady her breathing. No sense in wasting energy on worrying. She wouldn't leave these things to go after her son. It was that simple. She just had to last longer than they did.

Something green moved in the corner of her eye. She whirled, flicking up the point of her staff—to come face to face with Phantom, floating above her just out of range. Maddie let out a few ragged breaths, then lowered the staff a few inches. He looked somewhat worse for wear, black jumpsuit half shredded, bright ectoplasm beading on the scratches littering his neck, arms and torso.

"Phantom," she clipped out between breaths.

Some part of her that wasn't buzzing with adrenaline—or outraged at him for starting this battle in the first place—was genuinely curious to see what he'd do. Join his kind in attacking her, or... continue the strange pattern of behavior he'd displayed thus far. She kept her weapon raised.

"You okay?" He asked breathlessly. "I saw some—" His eyes fell on her wound.

An odd expression flashed over the ghost's face—his eyes widened, mouth pulled down, brows rose—the word that came to Maddie's mind was 'vulnerable.' Then his eyes hardened and he landed lightly on the ground in front of her, so close that the Specter Deflector crackled in warning.

He turned his back on her, eyeing the horde that was gathering in a whirling green tide at the edge of the underbrush. The sun had nearly set; shadows stretched long between the trees, distorting weirdly over the glowing ghosts and throwing bars of darkness at their feet. Maddie stared at the messy white hair on the back of Phantom's head, nonplussed. At this range she could behead him in half a second. What was he thinking?

A handful of the ghosts, catching sight of new prey, broke off and darted toward them. White-green foam frothed on yellow fangs. Maddie tensed. Phantom spread out his hands, planting his feet and standing firm between her and the oncoming ghosts.

"Stay behind me. And, uh, cover your ears."

"What are you—"

Phantom sucked in a huge breath, and _screamed_.

The staff dropped from her hands as Maddie clapped her hands over her ears on reflex.

Phantom's voice hit the ghostly creatures like a physical force, bowling them over and then shredding their bodies as they scrambled over each other in an attempt to escape. Trees groaned and splintered. Leaves fled from the branches. a furrow ground into the dirt, starting a few feet in front of them and gouging a shallow trench thirty yards long.

The cry—or wail, or whatever it was—went on unnaturally long. The air grew thick with ectoplasmic energy. The Specter Deflector buzzed angrily, sending crackling sparks along the surface of her jumpsuit. Finally the powerful voice trailed away, leaving Phantom panting and leaning his hands on his knees.

Maddie gaped. She'd had no idea that Phantom was capable of such large-scale destruction. The ghost pack was gone. Completely obliterated. Only a few wisps of greenish smoke amid the blasted-apart trees and churned up earth indicated that anything had been there at all.

She took a long, quick step back from the ghost in front of her, staff raised in defense.

He shuddered, still leaning on his knees. His aura flickered and shuddered, then seemed to it , narrowing into a bright, thin line that ringed his waist. It hovered there, slowly expanding into a halo.

Then the white glow contracted, vanishing into the ghost's chest, and he was flung back. Maddie sidestepped and he collided with the tree behind them. Phantom slid down the trunk and dropped to his hands and knees. He retched, splashing clearish green fluid on the forest floor.

Phantom groaned and rolled over on his side. Whatever that… backlash had been, it was over. Phantom's aura had vanished almost entirely. Without it, he looked oddly exposed and corporeal. He wouldn't be fighting anyone for a while, not in that state.

Maddie deactivated the laser staff with an expert flick and tucked it away in her belt. She bent and retrieved an ectogun from the forest floor; it was damaged, a ragged tear through the metal casing with a few sizzling wires poking out. She deactivated it and pocketed that, too.

"Did I get all of them?"

She rested her fingertips deliberately on the holster of her ectogun as she turned to regard him. The ghost was sitting on his knees, leaning on one hand as he wiped his mouth with the other. He was pale, sweaty, breathless, but alert, glancing around for further threats.

Maddie glanced at the empty woods; twilight had crept in some time during the fight; the trees were a dark network of leaves and branches against a velvet blue sky. Any ecto-entity not using invisibility would shine out like a beacon in this environment. Somehow, she didn't think these particular ghosts were intelligent enough to master something so intentional. There was something… off about them. They were feral, but focused on their prey with a surreal kind of intensity.

"If you didn't, the rest are scared off," she responded, touching the weapon at her belt again; her ghost hunting instincts told her they couldn't be gone for good. "For now."

"Good," he muttered, rolling to his feet. He wiped ineffectively at the oozy green wounds on his shoulder. It left a greenish smear across the front of his jumpsuit, adding to his general dishevelment. He gave her a tired smile. "That's about all of the chew toy treatment I can stand."

It felt… weird was the best word, how casual and friendly Phantom was with her. She was supposedly his enemy; he, one of her most dangerous foes. It made Maddie's skin crawl.

"What do we do now?"

"We?" she echoed, incredulous. He was still harping on that?

"Let me guess: No we, right? Geez, thanks for the gratitude."

"Don't act like you've given me any reason to trust you, ghost." Her eyes narrowed. He'd been acting in his own interests, that's all.

"I saved your life! Again!"

"After directly endangering it!" Anxiety sharpened her wrath, making the words sharp and vicious. She'd been taken away from her son; that was an unforgivable offense. "That's the second time today, unless you want to pretend that your little feud with the Wisconsin Ghost wasn't what pulled me into this in the first place!"

Maddie had promised Danny a ghost-free weekend with her, and now she wasn't even around to protect him. Her son was alone, helpless, in ghost-infested woods. Her only hope was that he'd had the good sense to lock himself in the GAV with the ghost shields up until she got back. Or better yet, call for help.

The ghost boy looked stricken at that. His shoulders drooped. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Maddie paused, taken aback at the grudging admission.

"Even you must see that your actions are only causing more harm," she said, not as sternly as she'd meant to. "If really did have any concern for my well-being, then you wouldn't insist on interfering."

The ghost boy seemed to deflate, sinking into the ground ever so slightly. He said nothing.

After a long moment, she holstered her gun and turned away. "Don't follow me."

* * *

_tbc..._

* * *

A/N:

Wow, that's the most continuous action I've ever written in my life.

My deepest thanks to **Cordria** for her beta work on this chapter! Her stories were a major reason I joined this fandom in the first place, so it's super cool to be working with her! (and guys if you haven't read her DP fics _holy moley_ get over there now)

And thank you, dear readers, for your reviews and feedback! Especially **DareIask**, **Miss Frizzle**, and **DPfangirl** (though uh, you might wanna consider decaf...). I'm glad you're enjoying this story!

Till next time!

-Hj


	5. Chapter 5

Maddie sat cross-legged on the stone floor and went through the unpleasant chore of rebandaging her shoulder.

Her shelter was more of an overhang than a cave, with a broad, mossy mouth partly blocked by bushes. The inside was tall enough for Maddie to stand in and stretched fifteen feet or more into the rocky hillside. A couple of bats had flittered around her head when she'd first entered, but they'd flown off into the night and wouldn't return until daybreak. Maddie planned to be well on her way to the campsite by then.

The natural shelter must have been used by hikers; a ring of rocks lay in the middle of the floor with a little stack of kindling next to it. A few smoky handprints marked the walls, signed and dated with Sharpie.

The gauze caught on half-dried blood and she hissed, using her fingernails to ease it loose. She'd wrapped it after the fight to stop the blood flow, but if she waited too long to treat it properly she risked infection. The hasty bandaging fell away. She craned her neck and inspected the gash. It was red around the edges, crusted over with a dark, messy scab that still oozed a little at the center. No infection; so far, so good.

Rummaging in one of the smaller compartments of her belt, she found a tiny capsule of hydrogen peroxide. She broke it between thumb and finger and let it spill over the wound, wincing at the sting. Then she produced a tightly rolled length of gauze from another compartment and smoothly, firmly wrapped it around the wound. It would be better to take off her hazmat and put the bandage underneath… but that would mean blocking access to her weapons, and she couldn't predict when a ghost might appear.

Speaking of which… Her eyes trailed unwillingly to the cave's entrance. A boulder flanked the cave, and in the gathering she could make out a faint glow from behind it.

Maddie sighed. Phantom was still there, then.

He'd followed her, despite her warning. That vocal attack had left him too drained to fly, and she could outpace him at a brisk walk. He'd stubbornly bumped along behind her, tripping over endless tree roots and fighting through the underbrush.

She'd threatened to shoot him at first, which he'd responded to with sullen, stubborn silence. Then she'd settled on steadfastly ignoring him. It wasn't easy. He'd made a ridiculous racket, crashing through bushes and snapping branches. If there had been any wildlife to be seen (or hunted, Maddie had thought, as her stomach began to growl), the ghost boy ensured that anything near them had fled.

Luck had finally remembered Maddie's existence. First, she'd stumbled on a faint but unmistakable hiking trail. It led northeast, toward the road. It would be an easy day's hike to the bridge they had driven over on their way here. It would take her back to the campsite, the GAV, and Danny by noon tomorrow. They might even see the comet after all.

Then as darkness gathered and the winds picked up, she'd discovered this small cave set into the mountainside, a perfect place to spend the night. Phantom had made as if to follow her inside. An ectogun pointed at his face had cleared up that notion. He'd gazed at her mournfully, then shuffled off.

And yet… there he stayed. It was baffling; he had no reason to stay. No loyalty to her, aside from their mutual enemies, who were now defeated. She had made it clear on multiple occasions that his odd guardianship was unwanted.

She stared out at the little halo of light, curiosity mingling with an emotion Maddie could barely imagine applying to a ghost: Pity. How strange.

Shrugging, she turned to her damaged ectogun and began disassembling it with smooth, practiced movements. The muzzle and heating coils had been crushed, rendering it useless. That left her with five small-scale ecto-weapons.

Maddie opened the back compartment of the broken gun and popped out the battery-sized ectoplasmic power cell. Maybe she could figure out how to route its power into one of the other guns, though only two of them were at half-charge.

Unless she was outnumbered again, it would be enough. These ghosts were animal-types, low intelligence. They wouldn't have the means or the resources to reform and gather power in the single day it would take her to return to the GAV. Not after the devastating destruction Phantom had wreaked on them.

She paused, rolling the little power cell in her hand, considering its soft, vibrant green glow. Fending off so many ghosts with such limited firepower would have been difficult alone. Maybe impossible. Maddie bit her lip. Glanced outside once again at the barely-there light on the far side of the boulder. She stood up, pocketed the power cell, and went after the ghost.

He'd huddled up against the lee side of the boulder, back to the cave entrance. She reached out a hand to touch his shoulder, hesitated, then spoke. "Phantom."

"Yeah? What do you want?" he muttered, voice surly and congested.

She wondered briefly and uncomfortably if he'd been crying, but decided not to ask. A wounded teenager, which was more or less what this ghost was proving (behaviourally at least) to be, would just find the question humiliating.

He cut such a pitiful figure, huddled alone in the twilight. His softly glowing white aura outlined the despondent curve of hunched shoulders. His wounds, she noticed, still hadn't sealed over… odd, for an ecto-entity. Greenish ectoplasmic fluid oozed sluggishly from various cuts and abrasions.

"You're still here," she stated.

He shrugged, not turning around.

"Why are you still here? You obviously aren't comfortable in a wild environment. There aren't any ghosts for you to fight. Why don't you just go home?"

More silence, this time gloomy and embarrassed.

"You're lost," she said, realization slowly dawning. "You can't fly, and you're alone. You have nowhere else to go."

"Give the lady a prize," Phantom grumbled. "You got me, I'm in trouble. But what do you care?"

"I don't." Or rather, she shouldn't.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

There was something… something she couldn't quite put her finger on, that made the sight of him so despondent strangely hard to accept. Maybe it was lingering gratitude. He had protected her, after all.

Maddie dropped her hand lightly on his shoulder, unthinking. His aura crackled. He yelped and jumped sideways, landing in an awkward sprawl. Phantom glared up at her accusingly.

Right. The Specter Deflector. For the first time, she regretted not grabbing the key on her way out. "Sorry, I… I forgot."

"Sure you did," he snapped. "Just like you forgot the freakin' thermos, and how to get back, and all the times I've helped you since we got stuck in this stupid place, and–and–"

"You done?"

He sniffed and sat up, crossing his arms. "Yeah. Go away."

Maddie sighed. "I'm sorry, alright? This is a little strange for me. A ghost acting…" Alive. Altruistic. Caring? "...helpful."

"That's me, Casper the Friendly Ghost. Except with more hair." Bright, radioactive sweat had beaded on his brow, and he brushed it away with a shaking hand. His aura was dim and uncertain; he looked sick and exhausted.

"If this is how your body reacts to that ability, I think I understand why I've never seen it before," she commented mildly.

"Well, _usually_ I change back to...uh, to something weaker and my ghost powers kinda reboot." He rubbed at his eyes. "Which isn't a barrel of laughs either, but trust me, this sucks worse."

Maddie's eyebrows shot up. Change back? In all her studies of him, she had never found any indications of Phantom as a shapeshifter. That could explain... a lot of things, actually. Why his unmistakable ectosignature disappeared from her scopes at random intervals. How a ghost with a relatively small mass could exert such ridiculous displays of power. "Why don't you 'change back' now?"

Phantom fidgeted, picking at a tear on his jumpsuit. "Can't."

There had been enough teenaged angst in the Fenton household for Maddie to know that stubborn expression; electrified pliers wouldn't drag a better answer out of him.

If this physiological shift was power-based, it probably–usually–happened naturally, a reflexive mechanism that drew energy inward to trigger regeneration. Somehow that reflex was blocked, but his body hadn't gotten the message. It would explain the "sick" symptoms the ghost displayed–the dampened aura, moisture loss, poor coloring. His own core was sucking him dry.

She tried to picture Phantom as a smaller, weaker ghost. He'd probably lose some of that remarkable corporeality. Her mouth quirked up wryly. It'd be hard to get more pitiful.

Maddie crouched down next to him, ducking so she could catch his eye. "I've got something that might help."

"If it's an ectoblast between the eyes, no thank you." He peered up at her, puffy-eyed and suspicious.

"Here." She held out the little capsule.

He eyed her offering sidelong. "Is that...a miniature plasma core?"

Maddie nodded slowly, hiding a frown. That was the second… no, third Fenton device he'd shown an unsettling familiarity with. Her research subject had been doing some research of his own.

If Phantom realized how suspect his comment was, he didn't show it. "Where'd you get it?"

"The broken ectogun. Drink it." She set it on the grass at his feet. He picked it up and rolled it between his fingers.

"Isn't this stuff, like, toxic?"

Maddie studied him; he'd think of his native substance as something poisonous? Another oddness to add to the list. "To humans, yes. It's a highly concentrated form of ectoplasm designed to store and utilize electromagnetic power. But you're an ectoplasmic being–this should help you. Think of it like an energy drink."

"If you say so." He downed it in one gulp, gagged and grimaced. "Eugh, that tastes like rusty metal. Nasty!"

A faint green flush dotted his pale cheeks, then vanished. It was hard to tell, but it seemed as if his aura brightened ever so slightly. "How do you feel?"

"Like a lab rat," he grumbled. "If I grow an extra head or something I'm blaming you."

"Try levitating."

He clambered to his feet, bounced on his toes a couple of times, then carefully drifted into the air. Surprise dawned across his face, followed by a disbelieving smile. "Hey… hey actually, wow. I feel pretty good. Well, not great, but…" he glanced down at the now-empty glass capsule. "Got any more of those handy?"

Shrugging, Maddie straightened and walked back into the cave. She made no comment when he drifted in after her. Part of her–the wiser part–already regretted the action. It was one thing to be grateful to a ghost. Deliberately enhancing its power on a whim… what was she thinking?

She hadn't needed that plasma core, not really, but reducing her own firepower bordered on reckless.

Maddie pushed aside the gutted weapon with her toe and dismissed the hopeful tone in the ghost's voice. "Just that much should give your core the energy it needs to, as you called it, reboot."

"I guess so." Phantom yawned and stretched, rolling onto his side right on the hard rock floor of the cave. "Wake me up if anything tries to eat you, 'kay?" In an instant he was snoring softly.

Maddie stared at him, nonplussed. He was sleeping. Ghosts… weren't supposed to sleep. They weren't supposed to bruise either, and she could see the angry green-blue marks on his throat starting to puff and swell. She walked out into the clearing and scooped up some branches, careful not to go out of sight of the cave.

She needed to think. About a lot of things.

Danny woke to something warm and slippery settling around his shoulders.

He felt stiff, in that half-pleasant way that sleep gives you after a long, exhausting day. His head still hurt, but it had dulled to an ache behind his eyes, hidden under a layer of fuzz that wasn't quite up to figuring out why his floor was suddenly bare, cold stone instead of carpet. Or why he'd fallen asleep on the floor.

He blinked and sat up, welcomed by a clamor of bruises and cuts that burned the moment he moved. _Ow. _Right. He'd been in a fight. Well, that wasn't unusual, but where… The thing around his shoulders slipped; he grasped it and realized it was bright orange, fluffy cloth.

Danny's stomach gave a queasy twist as he remembered. _Mom. _It was one of Mom's sleeping bags. They were a Fenton invention, some kind of chemistry magic that turned a fist-sized wad of fabric into foam-insulated survival gear with a few drops of liquid.

He looked across the cave to where Maddie was seating herself on her own sleeping bag, pulled close to a small but cheery campfire.

"I didn't mean to wake you," she said, not looking up.

"No, uh… thank you." It came out raspy, so he coughed to clear his throat. She wasn't aiming an ectogun in his direction. That was an improvement.

As he woke, he'd drifted up to shoulder-height, so he just had to drop his feet to move to standing. He let the sleeping bag slide off his shoulders and bunched it in his arms, floating closer to the fire. The heat flickered strange and feather-light against his aura, a prickling sensation that didn't quite make it to warm. "Not to sound ungrateful, but ghosts don't really get cold."

She really ought to use both for herself; despite the fire, Danny could see Maddie's breath clouding in front of her face.

"You were shivering."

"Was I? Huh." It certainly had gotten chilly, Danny realized; it was only mid-October and the nights weren't supposed to reach freezing yet, but there could be cold snaps, especially out here in the mountains. Even Danny's own breath, just a handful of degrees below freezing, made a little puff of white against the twilight of the cave.

"I've never seen a ghost... sleep, before," Maddie said.

Danny chuckled, settling cross-legged across from her. "That's because most ghosts around you are running for their afterlives. You're one scary lady with an ecto-staff, you know."

She smiled grimly. "Good thing, too."

He glanced at her shoulder; it had been bandaged neatly with white gauze, spotted in the middle with blood. "How's the arm?"

Rotating the arm experimentally, Maddie nodded. "It won't hinder me."

"Does it hurt?"

She gave him another one of those odd looks, as if she was trying to puzzle out some kind of meaning behind a simple question. "A little, yes."

"Sorry." Danny rested his elbows on his knees and let his eyes drop to the floor. "I should've stuck closer to you." He'd hoped to knock out the more dangerous ones before they figured out where Maddie had hidden, but there'd been a lot more than he'd expected.

"You should have waited and picked them off one by one," she responded archly. "What were you thinking, jumping right into the middle of things when you were so outnumbered?"

Danny flushed, picking at a tear in his jumpsuit. The cut had closed over into a dark green seam as he'd slept; one good thing about being stuck in ghost mode–things healed over faster. Tomorrow it'd be nothing but a scab, and even the fabric would fix itself.

"I dunno." Why was she making this so complicated? Danny leaned forward and blew gently on the fire, watching the flames curl and bounce against his cold breath. There had been too many to fight off all at once without her getting hurt. It had been the right choice. "I can take care of things just fine. It worked out, didn't it?"

"You're talking as if those ghosts are gone," she retorted. "Do you really think you got rid of them that easily?"

"Did that look _easy_ to you?" Danny jabbed a thumb at his chest, offering her a grin–the cocky one that drove baddies crazy. "There's not many ghosts who could pull that off. I took care of it. If whatever's left does get their ectoplasmic butts together for an attack, I'll protect you." This time he'd stick close.

"That's comforting," she said with a wry smile. "I take it you're feeling better?"

Better? Danny flexed his hands and nodded at the reassuring green that licked over his fingertips. Yes. Definitely. One hundred percent? Not by a long shot, but at least he could fly and shoot ectoblasts again. A few. One or two. Enough to protect them from whatever scraps of ghost had survived his ghostly wail. Fifty percent, maybe.

Danny snickered. Talk about ironic. "Oh sure, great. I feel only _half _dead again."

Mom didn't get the joke. She drew back, the smile fading from her face. Then she snatched a gun out of her belt and began fiddling with it, flicking the safety on and off, touching the screws that held it together, running her fingertip along the smooth ring that covered the heating coils.

"Foolish question," she muttered to the gun.

Danny winced; he'd just reminded her that he was, supposedly, dead. Right when she'd actually started being nice to him. Brilliant move. Vlad would be slow clapping in the background, if he wasn't trapped in a Fenton Thermos somewhere.

The cave shook. Loose stones rattled on the floor. Their eyes met, listening in the sudden silence. The night noises had stopped–no crickets, no owls, nothing.

"There aren't… earthquakes in upstate New York, right?" Danny ventured.

His mom shook her head, holding one finger up for silence. The cave shook again, this time accompanied by a distant sound; a horrible, distorted cry, like fifty voices twisted together, half roar, half scream.

"Ghosts," Maddie hissed, rising to a crouch. The laser staff materialized in her hand, and its green-white glow cast eerie shadows against the walls. "Still think the problem's taken care of, ghost boy?"

"Oh man," Danny groaned. He hadn't shivered earlier, that must have been his ghost sense going off! Just great. _Nice job, hero._

* * *

_tbc..._

* * *

A/N:

Can't even get through a quiet campfire chat without those varmints showing up, yeesh. Hey look, it's an update! Wonders never cease.

Many thanks to my beta reader, Cordria, and Anneriawings for her help and advice!

And thank you to my dear reviewers! Anonhippopotamus (hee), Nelohra, and Starpaw007, among others. Y'all are awesome and I hope you enjoy the rest of this little story!

-Hj


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